Also Kurt Cobain's Vandalism Strat.
Fender already has 2 Cobain models currently in production, but it IS odd that they've never attempted a Cobain Strat, given how often he was seen on TV and in the studio with them. People have been making and selling custom Vandalism and K-Records Strat replicas for years now. It honestly blows my mind how popular Nirvana is with people who were born well after Cobain died. He's been the most popular Artist on Equipboard for years now.
The important thing on this one, for me at least, is that Fender get the neck REALLY right. The neck specs were the main reason Cobain bought lefty Fender Japan Strats instead of lefty Mexico or USA Strats.
Per Guitar Player Magazine interview, 1991:
"Lately, I’ve been using a Strat live, because I don’t want to ruin my Mustang yet. I like to use Japanese Strats because they’re a bit cheaper, and the frets are smaller than the American version’s."
Fender sells plenty of HSS Strats at all price points, there is no point in making yet another HSS Strat with modern specs, and just slapping a sticker and some fake relic-ing on it.
...but an HSS Strat with a great vintage-spec neck, available in both right and lefthand versions, WOULD be something special. I doubt Fender has ever sold anything like that in the US at any point in its history... finally doing so would demonstrate appropriate respect for why Kurt was willing to use use these (then) brand-new guitars in his otherwise-vintage lineup.
Most of the late 80's and early 90's product out of Fender Japan that I've seen featured vintage 7.25" radius necks with small (narrow & short) vintage frets. The factories that Fender partnered with to form Fender Japan had specialized in making killer un-licensed reproductions of golden-age Fender guitars and basses, and it seems they stuck with more or less 50s and 60s spec necks on everything for the first decade of officially-licensed production. Reverb seems to back this up in their description paragraph for the ST-62 lefty .
Fender Mexico doesn't make any lefty necks with vintage specs, so I think a GOOD Vandalism Strat would have to come either from Fender Japan or Fender's USA Custom Shop. I vote for this being a Fender Japan product, as that's where the original Cobain Strats came from.
As for the huge "Vandalism: Beautiful as a rock in a cop's face" sticker, it's a must, you can't whiff on the sticker and still call it the Cobain Vandalism Strat. The challenge here is whether or not Fender can get away with producing a product that says such a thing without incurring the wrath of Police-unions and anyone with a cop in their family. Fender are a big-ass corporation these days, probably pretty risk-averse -- it's unlikely they want to incur all the negative press/controversy such a move might stir up. It's their right to just not want to go there, or to not want to sell a product that explicitly promotes violence.
3 possible approaches to the Vandalism sticker:
Sell it with a sticker that is 100% accurate to the original sticker and wording, but place a removable cling decal over the last line of the phrase for when the guitars are hanging on the wall in music shops. They can put some patriotic 1st amendment and American flag/bald eagle stuff on the cover-decal. Maybe that appeases enough folks?
Sell it with a perfectly-mounted repro sticker that says "Vandalism" up top, but the rest of the sticker is blank/pure white. They can include a big sheet of black letter decals, so you can spell out whatever crazy thing you want to say in the remaining space on the sticker.
Sell it with a removable static-cling sticker the same size and placement as the actual Vandalism sticker, that says "Vandalism: More beautiful than this shameless corporate cash-grab"... and you can either leave it on if you think Kurt would appreciate that message in this context, or you can peel it off and put on a perfect repro sticker you buy off Etsy or wherever.
Anyway... my 2 cents. I added it to the list.
UPDATE 1: This dude on Youtube has discovered what I'm talking about re: Fender Japan necks.
UPDATE 2: Also, looks like he pegged the black Strat as an ST-362. Damn, get this dude on Equipboard, he's good.
-s.webp?v=1783318437 "Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer")
-s.webp?v=1783436227 "Roland SH-101")
-s.webp?v=1783436217 "Roland TR-909 Rhythm Composer")
